Cruz Blasts Trump Over Israel: ‘I Am Not Neutral’

Sen. Ted Cruz greets businessman Donald Trump onstage as they address a tea party rally against the Iran nuclear deal at the U.S. Capitol in Washington Sept. 9, 2015. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)

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CHARLESTON, S.C. – Ted Cruz condemned Donald Trump for saying he would like to remain neutral in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to a South Carolina crowd Friday.

“I am not neutral,” Cruz declared to cheers and applause from rally goers, “between murderers and the innocent citizens murderers are targeting. I am not neutral at home or abroad between radical Islamic terrorists and the targets of their terror.”

When Cruz first brought up Trump’s comments made at a televised town hall Wednesday, the audience gathered at the College of Charleston booed at The Donald’s statement.

“This week, Donald Trump said on a TV program that he would be neutral between Israel and the Palestinians,” the Texas senator told his audience as they jeered.

Trump said at the town hall hosted by MSNBC that he wanted to “be sort of a neutral guy” between Israelis and Palestinians.

Cruz then drew a contrast between what Trump said on Wednesday and how he will treat Israel if he is elected president.

“Let me tell you this: As president, I have no intention of being neutral. As president, I will be unapologetically alongside the nation of Israel,” he stated.

To Cruz, one side of the conflict is fundamentally right and the other side is fundamentally wrong.

“There is a difference between right and wrong. There is a difference between terrorists who strap nails around their chests and go into a mall to murder women and children and the armed forces protecting the innocents in Israel,” he explained.

Cruz’s afternoon speech in Charleston drew in hundreds of South Carolinians and one of the main themes of the speech was to dissuade voters from picking Trump at the ballot box. Besides criticizing The Donald over Israel, the senator hit the Republican front-runner over his past support for abortion and the billionaire’s supposed unreliability to pick a solid conservative for the Supreme Court.